I've wanted to go to Sicily for a number of years. And when the opportunity arose to visit Palermo we jumped at the chance.
I set up this blog to document my travel exploits from previous vacations, but work, life, covid-19 pandemic etc. just kind of go in the way!
Since we have only recently returned from our first overseas vacation since before my son was born (3+ years ago), what better time than now to start my excursion into travel blogging.
Cheap airlines...
Why do we do this to ourselves?
The last time I had attempted to travel with this particular budget airline, we found ourselves stood in Manchester Airport check-in frantically trying to book seats with an alternate airline as they decided it is cheaper for them to just cancel the flight rather than get the passengers to sunny Spain...
The lesson was clearly not learnt, or the impact of the lesson diminished through the hazy rose-tinted fog of time.
Truth be told, they were the only airline flying into an airport in the West of Sicily. Catania, on the East seems to be the most popular for flights coming out of the UK. Not wanting to rush through an airport with two children attempting to catch a transfer flight, we decided to bite the bullet and book it.
Lightning surely can't strike twice can it?
Apparently it can, or at least strike close enough to the original impact mark to make it feel like a curse. To be fair to Ryanair, it wasn't completely their fault. Now I'd held off mentioning Ryanair by name until this point as I can almost hear your tutting 'you get what you pay for' and 'only yourselves to blame' thoughts... And to be fair, we had the exact conversation at around the 3.5 hour mark of being sat inside the aeroplane on Manchester airport runway. In total we were sat for 5 hours and unable to leave the plane to stretch our legs. Others got off, but we persisted...
The relief was palpable and there were even some cheers when the captain asked the crew to arm doors for take off.
The thing with travelling with a budget airline is they tend to land at airports less busy with less transport infrastructure. I'd researched for ages and booked us tickets on to a coach transfer from Trapani to Palermo. Unfortunately by the time we had landed in Trapani, the bus had long since departed, the driver was probably tucked up in bed thinking what an easy shift he'd had with no passengers.
Fortunately, someone on our flight had pre-booked a taxi and when it arrived they informed control to send a load more taxis, and we were soon, finally on our way to Palermo. Rocking up to the Airbnb €200 lighter at an ungodly 5am.
Talking of godly...
For those familiar with Italy, you will know that religion plays a big part in daily life, and that was evident in Sicily too.
Hopes for a lie-in to recover from our travel exploit were dashed about 10am to the sounds of a marching band outside the window:
It seems we had arrived in Palermo just in time for the 'Solemn procession with the venerated wooden simulacrum of Mary SS of the Seven Sorrows through the streets of the city'.
For a 'Solemn' procession, the marching band actually played some uplifting music and the church itself had been adorned in festive colourful lights. If not for the lack of sleep, it was a pleasant way to start the day, and the whole trip.
Palermo is a vast city that stretches across a good portion of the Western- north coast of the Island and is the political centre for Sicily. It has a wealth of history and beautiful architecture that reflects the various different ruling civilisations that have called it home over the centuries.
It is such a shame therefore that a large number of these building have been left to ruin, with a very large number being boarded up/ rooves caved in and just in general states of disrepair. What were once beautiful centres of commerce and community, left to crumble as resources are spent elsewhere.
As with most cities, there are exceptions. And Palermo spends the cash where the tourists go.
For our first planned excursion, we headed out to the very impressive Cattedrale di Palermo. A building that has been appended over the years with different architectural styles, restorations and alterations. Depending on who was in charge and what the fashion was at the time.
One of the most impressive features of this church is the meridiana, a bronze line set into the floor of the church running North to South. A small hole in one of the domes casts an image of the sun onto the line passing through different signs of the zodiac at various points of the year.
I must have been so in awe that I forgot to take a decent picture of it... Either that or I'd had enough of churches for today and was ready to eat.
The Piazza Vigilena/ Quattro Canti (four Kings) is a square in the centre of the city with symmetrical fountains in each of the corners, adorned by a King above. It is considered to be the centre of historic Palermo, and is a great place to start any walking tours of the city.
Just along from the Quattro Canti, is the Fontana Pretoria (Pretoria fountain). Originally built in Florence, it was bought and transferred to Palermo in 1574. Also known as the 'square of shame' because of the nudity of the statues that adorn the square.
Where would an ancient city be without it's gates, to the North of Quattro Canti is the Porta Nuova which marks the entrance to the old city from the south-west.
Also pictured here was the road-train city tour which we went on. My son loves trains and this was an excellent way to both see the city and keep him entertained for an hour. It was also much cheaper than the big red bus tours you see everywhere.
Another advantage of the road train tour over the city bus, was that we could navigate the windy narrow streets of historic Palermo.
And narrow winding streets are something that Palermo has in spades. It is a very interesting city to visit and just wander.
Just watch out for those scooters...
After all that exploring, we headed to Piazza Marina to find a restaurant for an early tea. It is one of the quieter squares in the city with an interesting park at it's centre. Worthy of note are the ancient trees within:
After enjoying some Pasta and Caponata, washed down with our first Aperol Spritz of the trip, we made our way to the very impressive Porta Felice. There had been some investment into the local area and a new children's playground helped stretch the kids legs.
After such a busy day, we decided to chill with a Gelato and watch the boats come and go from the marina.
Thanks for reading, this is the first time travel writing for a long time and is the first post about our recent trip to Sicily.
Part 2 coming soon...
Parts of this blog are cross posted on Publish0x.